ISLAMABAD, 18 February 2005 — Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi yesterday said his country was not going to hand over an alleged deputy of Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to anyone as investigations were still in progress.
“No, there is no move to hand him over to anybody and he is still detained by us,” Badawi told a press conference in Islamabad when asked if Buhary Syed Abu Tahir was being handed over to the United States. Tahir has been named by US President George W. Bush as “deputy” to Khan in an international nuclear trafficking ring.
“Our... intelligence people like to speak and continue to talk to him. Obviously, there are lot of things we would like to know from him,” Badawi said.
Tahir told Malaysian police last year that Khan sold nuclear centrifuge parts to Iran in the mid-1990s and sent enriched uranium to Libya in 2001. Khan, a disgraced one-time national hero credited with making Pakistan a nuclear power, confessed in February 2004 to leaking nuclear secrets. He was later pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.
Eight NWFP Districts Declared Calamity Stricken
The NWFP government has declared eight districts of the province as calamity stricken and has appealed the federal government and the people for emergency relief aid.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani said that due to heavy rains and snowfall there has been a massive destruction in the province and the NWFP government is utilizing all the available resources for the rehabilitation of the affected people.
He said that the bereaved families of the people killed in the disaster would be given 100,000 rupees and the injured would be given a relief amount of 50,000. Durrani said that in this hour of need not only the federal but also the provincial governments and the masses should also cooperate with the NWFP government to carry out the relief work. He also appealed to private organizations to initiate relief activities.
The chief minister said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has given directives to estimate the destruction that has been caused in the affected areas after which the federal government would announce a package for the province.
Meanwhile painful stories of death and destruction and food shortages were narrated when inhabitants of scenic Kalam made their first contact with the outside world following 17 days of devastating rains and snow.
Sources said 32 persons were killed and 96 injured in rain and snow-related incidents in the area. Of them, 20 were killed and 70 injured in Palogah village near Mahodhand, five were killed and four sustained injuries in Biyun, and seven died and eight were injured in Chorat in the Matiltan area. Injuries to villagers were also reported from Ushu, Dorgah and Kilgal. They feared the death toll would rise as bodies swept away by glaciers or buried under debris of collapsed houses are recovered.
It was the first time since Jan. 31 that the people of Kalam were able to talk to someone outside their snow-bound area.
